Designated Drivers is an academic business book, and as
such threatens to be dry and formal. While the text is in places a
bit repetitive and theoretical, the insight that Andersen offers
stands as an excellent counterpoint to the entertaining but more
anecdotal American
Wheels, Chinese Roads. Like Dunne, Anderson has long business
experience in China, and he offers an informed insider's view of how
automotive business is transacted in China and what the likely
future trends are.

Anderson approaches the Chinese automotive industry from a
historical and political perspective. While automotive manufacture
and export have long been national priorities, the government's former
view of car factories primarily as generators of jobs and producers of
foreign exchange credits obscured the fact that better products are
critical for building a new industry. Viewing car manufacture as a
"pillar industry", the Central Government intended to control and plan
all activities from Beijing. The Government invited foreign
automakers to form joint ventures with state-owned companies with the
hope of learning how to design and build cars in the process.

What actually happened makes for a fascinating story that is
peripheral to Dunne's book. While the Central Government intended to
keep a monopoly on pillar industries, provinces and municipalities
formed their own car companies, some independent and some joint
ventures. SAIC, for example, China's largest carmaker, was started by
the city of Shanghai, and has successful joint ventures with GM and
VW, the former of which is detailed at length by Dunne. Anderson
describes a far longer list of joint ventures, both successful and
unsuccessful, and relates the tangled history of provincial and
central government wrangling over newly formed unauthorized
enterprises. The Central Government benchmarked its progress against
Western and Asian countries and aspired to have just a few powerful
manufacturers, but it worries about full employment, and
was inclined to let unpermitted but established factories continue.

The most fascinating stories of all, perhaps, are the independent
automakers like Geely and BYD. The Central Government has stated
goals for international auto sales and renewable energy, and has
tolerated the independents since they have pursued these goals more
agressively than the centrally planned factories. These tensions between
idealism and pragmatism, between the provinces and Beijing, and
between members of the joint ventures dominate the narrative.

All in all, I found Designated Drivers highly readable. Anyone who enjoyed American Wheels, Chinese Roads should pick up a copy of Anderson's work as well.